A/N: So sorry for this story. I have no flipping clue where I am going with it, and have no idea how to get there. This story has many sub-plots and plot-holes that don't make a lot of sense, but it is my first fan-fiction. Mary Sue warning, Flames welcome, Reviews more welcome.
Disclaimer: Tolkien is almighty and owns all of Middle Earth. Including Legolas.
Tolkien: ESPECIALLY LEGOLAS!
Me: You own him, but I kidnapped him for the story. Eh, yeah, ANYwho, the only things I own are Melanie, her loser father and Artimas. And ahh . . .everyone you don't recognize. I don't own Huntington, Indiana, it is a real place that I have gone to a couple times. I don't even really own the plot, as it is a mix of a bunch of stuff I've seen in other fan fics. BTW, I love Harry Potter, so if I start to talk about him every once in a while, ignore it.
P.S.I'm writing a Lupin fic, so you should totally check it out. It isn't as far as this one though.
Chapter One: A Birthday Wish
I'm young and I'm hopeless,
I'm lost and I've noticed,
I'm going nowhere fast that's what they say.
I'm troublesome and falling,
I'm angry at my father,
It's me against this world . . . And I don't care.
-Good Charlotte, The Young and the Hopeless.
It was her birthday when it happened. She was in the eleventh grade, and was turning seventeen. She smiled to herself. Amazing, really, that she had lived to be seventeen. That was okay, she wouldn't make eighteen. Of that she was sure, she would end it all tonight. However, she wanted to celebrate the end of her misery. She baked herself a cake. Yes, it was kind of sick, but so was her life. The girl's parent was not at home, which she was grateful for. Then she reminded herself that he was probably out drinking. The girl decided she'd make one last wish, one more chance she'd take at living. "Take me away, far away from here. Anywhere," and then, as an afterthought, she added, "I don't care, I'll do anything." And then, just as she blew out the candles, there was a flash of light, and everything went black.
She woke up feeling something heavy on her back. It was an odd feeling. The girl opened her eyes. She screamed. But her scream came out as a whiny. It was night, in the middle of a wood, and she had a grungy man on her back. There were cold metal reigns in her mouth. Yup, you guessed it. She was a horse. And she was being urged into battle with some of the ugliest creatures ever seen. They were kind of a cross between an ape, an old ugly man, and some dirt. No, scratch that, A LOT of dirt. Yuck.
But, anyway, she was being urged into battle. But she decided: NO WAY IN HELL! I mean, what would you do? And that was her big mistake. The man on top of her got struck down as he tried to urge her towards one of the filthy creatures. She whinnied in fear. 'What the fuck am I supposed to do now?' she thought.
But then, she realized that the battle was over. There were no more ugly creatures. There were just men. Lots of men. She tried to bite her lip, but couldn't on account of the fact that she was a bloody horse!
A man with blonde hair (even at night you could tell how blonde he was) walked up to her. In the background the men were burning the carcasses of the creatures. And then the girl understood. How many times had she seen that movie? These creatures were goblins! And that blonde man walking towards her with his hand outstretched was Eomer! NO WAY.
"Shh, Arod, shh!" he said as he patted her head. She snorted. He led her to one of the other horses. It was brown with a white blaze. She noticed that he too, was riderless. "Take care of them," Eomer told another man, and then he left to tend to the wounded. The other man made soft clicking noises as he prodded and poked at the brown horse. He tossed his brown mane as the man finished. Then the man turned towards Arod, and she tried to back away. She couldn't, of coarse, because he was holding her reigns.
"Hush now Arod, I'm not going to hurt you!" The man said in a soft voice. NO, ya think? She figured that out already, but no way was she going to let him prod at her like he did the other horse!
"What is wrong with you?" asked a voice beside her. She turned, and looked. Nothing but the other horse. "Excuse me? Would you do me the courtesy of answering my question," it said again, in a very irritated voice. It was the horse! 'Oh great, I'm in Middle Earth, I'm a horse, and other horses are talking to me. Perhaps I'm just dreaming... I hope.'
Just then the man used her momentary lack of attention by prodding her over the legs, back, and hindquarters. The girl/horse let out a shrill cry, and he let her be after he tethered both of them to a tree. He too went to tend to the wounded.
"You can talk!" she said, but she didn't feel her horse lips move. Instead she felt her words sort of leak out of her brain through her ears. What a weird feeling! The horse nodded his head. "Are you hurt?
"No," she said.
"Then why were you so afraid of Denethor?"
"I didn't want him to touch me!"
At that he snorted. "What is your name oh - foolish - one?" he asked.
"Well, I suppose it is Arod now," She said sadly, "It used to be Melanie."
"I am Hasufel," he said proudly, "Son of Grandfen and Anale." He drew up his head, and it appeared he wanted her to be impressed. How was a horse supposed to look impressed? Well, Melanie settled for bowing her head a little. Then, on sudden inspiration, she said, "You have a proud heritage."
He snorted in a satisfied sort of way. Hasufel looked past Melanie to the sky. "The sun rises. We ride." Before she knew it she was tethered to Hasufel who was tethered to another horse. None of the other horses seemed to want to talk to them. Melanie supposed it was because they lost riders. Melanie assumed the others considered it was Hasufel and Melanie's fault the riders were dead. Then the horses started to run. Not run, gallop.
Melanie couldn't believe she could go so fast. She was really flying! She threw back her head in joy. Hasufel was laughing. This was the best. Running, running, running. Fun.
Then they all started to turn around back to where we had come. A man, tall, sweaty looking, was standing on a hill. How on earth could they have passed by him? And then Melanie noticed a short man, and a very tall VERY good looking man step out from behind the first.
They surrounded the three. Melanie could see they were not afraid at all. Then Eomer spoke. "What business does an elf, a man, and a dwarf have with the Ridermark? Speak quickly!"
"Give me your name horse master, and I shall give ye mine." said the dwarf
"I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood a little higher from the ground," Eomer said casually.
"You would die before your stroke fell," said Legolas, while notching a bow faster than I could blink. Aragorn lowered Legolas's bow and spoke.
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas, of the Woodland Realm." he said, motioning to his companions. "We are friends of Rohan. And Theoden, your king."
"Theoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," Eomer replied, taking off his helmet, "Not even his own kin." At this, all the Riders lowered the spears that they had been pointing at the three. "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over these lands. My company is those loyal to Rohan. And for that, we have been banished," He paused and then spoke again, "The white wizard is cunning," he whispered, looking around at his companions for support, "He walks here and there, they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip past our nets." At this he looked pointedly at Legolas, the oh so hot elf. Legolas looked defiantly back at him.
"We are no spies," said Aragorn, seeing the two looking daggers at each other. "We track a party of Urak-Hi westward across the plains. They have taken two of our friends captive," he finished in a sad tone.
"The Uraks are destroyed, we slaughtered them during the night," Eomer said emotionlessly, while turning to look at Aragorn.
"Did you see two Hobbits with them?" cried Gimli frantically.
"They would be small, only children to your eyes," Aragorn put in.
"We left none alive," said Eomer, "We piled the carcasses and burned them," Melanie wondered why they did that, what was the point? Oh well. Eomer motioned towards the burning ground far behind them, littered with dead orcs.
"Dead," Gimli grunted huskily.
Eomer nodded his head, "I am sorry."
Then Eomer whistled, "Hasufel, Arod," and the two were pulled over towards them. Melanie shivered uncomfortably, as Legolas reached out and stroked her neck. "May they take you to better fortune than their masters," he said, "Farewell."
"Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It is forsaken in these lands, we ride north!" He called out to his companions and the rest of the Rohirrim rode away, leaving two horses, an elf, a man, and a dwarf standing there.
"Oh shit," Melanie said to Hasufel. He merely laughed his horse laugh.
Melanie tried to back away from Legolas, but those confounded reigns held her back. She kept thinking how it would be if suddenly, she changed back into a human WHILE HE WAS RIDING HER. Yeah, not a good thing. Plus her back was in severe pain from . . . other things.
"This horse has been mistreated," said Legolas to Aragorn. Well, he was right. She had been mistreated, but not by the Riders of Rohan. Legolas tried to get close to Melanie again, but she wouldn't let him. Then he stopped, and he spoke. Very soft, very musical words. Melanie couldn't understand the language. She could tell the words were kind and gentle. Melanie lowered her head. Then Melanie felt something she didn't expect: Legolas took her saddle off! For a moment Melanie sighed in relief at having that thing off her. Then she realized what Legolas was planning to do: ride her bareback. Oh shit. And, just as Melanie knew he would, Legolas mounted her. She was surprised. When the man from Rohan had been on her, she felt a heavy weight on her back. With Legolas on her, she hardly felt anything. That is, until Legolas helped Gimli up. Anyone could tell he was uneasy around horses, plus he weighed a ton!
Aragorn mounted Hasufel. Hasufel drew his head up. Melanie could tell he was proud that he was carrying the king of kings. And then her thoughts turned, once again, to whom she was carrying. Legolas Greenleaf. She was carrying an elf, an immortal. Melanie suddenly felt VERY protective of her burden (not so much Gimli.) Aragorn interrupted her musings, "We ride!" and he urged Hasufel into a gallop. Legolas didn't even need to rap her sides with his legs (wow, did THAT sound weird) before she started to run. Hasufel and Aragorn were ahead of them. Far ahead. Melanie did not care. She did not want her riders to be injured. She heard Legolas mutter a reprimand, and it felt as though her heart would shatter.
Melanie speeded up a bit and Hasufel and Aragorn came into view. When they came to a hault, Melanie felt her breath constrict. Being at that site once was enough. The smell of the dead and burned Orcs was unbearable!
Aragorn dismounted Hasufel and Legolas followed suit, helping Gimli down (from Mel's aching back) as well.
Melanie watched from the top of the hill, as they approached the large pile. Gimli dug through the pile with the end of his axe and then picked something up.
He looked up at Aragorn and Legolas and then said, "Its one of their wee belts." He held it up for them to see. Legolas bowed his head and began to mutter things in elvish. He was praying. Aragorn kicked a helmet and started to yell with anger. Her stomach lurched. He kneeled down on the ground and stopped to ponder for a few seconds.
"A hobbit lay here," he murmered, "They crawled. Their hands were bound."
Legolas and Gimli both looked up and followed him as he crawled across the ground, looking for clues. He picked up a piece of rope.
"Their bounds were cut," he said, a glimmer of hope in his voice.
"He's onto something," Melanie said to Hasufel.
"NO!" Hasufel replied sarcastically. She shot him a nasty, yet amused look before setting off after the trio. He followed, chuckling. They had stopped in front off Fangorn forest.
Hasufel and Melanie started to trot into the forest but Legolas stopped them. Melanie snorted with anger.
He merely shook his head. She felt more anger at this. It sucked being this stupid horse! Melanie really wanted to go with them. Why couldn't she be a human again? Why couldn't she go into the forest with them? Melanie felt her anger surge from her head, through her body and down to her hooves.
There was a small POP, and she fell painfully to the ground. She looked down at her hooves . . . but they weren't hooves! They were feet! She looked at her hands . . . her hands!
"Will you let me come now?"
Disclaimer: Tolkien is almighty and owns all of Middle Earth. Including Legolas.
Tolkien: ESPECIALLY LEGOLAS!
Me: You own him, but I kidnapped him for the story. Eh, yeah, ANYwho, the only things I own are Melanie, her loser father and Artimas. And ahh . . .everyone you don't recognize. I don't own Huntington, Indiana, it is a real place that I have gone to a couple times. I don't even really own the plot, as it is a mix of a bunch of stuff I've seen in other fan fics. BTW, I love Harry Potter, so if I start to talk about him every once in a while, ignore it.
P.S.I'm writing a Lupin fic, so you should totally check it out. It isn't as far as this one though.
Chapter One: A Birthday Wish
I'm young and I'm hopeless,
I'm lost and I've noticed,
I'm going nowhere fast that's what they say.
I'm troublesome and falling,
I'm angry at my father,
It's me against this world . . . And I don't care.
-Good Charlotte, The Young and the Hopeless.
It was her birthday when it happened. She was in the eleventh grade, and was turning seventeen. She smiled to herself. Amazing, really, that she had lived to be seventeen. That was okay, she wouldn't make eighteen. Of that she was sure, she would end it all tonight. However, she wanted to celebrate the end of her misery. She baked herself a cake. Yes, it was kind of sick, but so was her life. The girl's parent was not at home, which she was grateful for. Then she reminded herself that he was probably out drinking. The girl decided she'd make one last wish, one more chance she'd take at living. "Take me away, far away from here. Anywhere," and then, as an afterthought, she added, "I don't care, I'll do anything." And then, just as she blew out the candles, there was a flash of light, and everything went black.
She woke up feeling something heavy on her back. It was an odd feeling. The girl opened her eyes. She screamed. But her scream came out as a whiny. It was night, in the middle of a wood, and she had a grungy man on her back. There were cold metal reigns in her mouth. Yup, you guessed it. She was a horse. And she was being urged into battle with some of the ugliest creatures ever seen. They were kind of a cross between an ape, an old ugly man, and some dirt. No, scratch that, A LOT of dirt. Yuck.
But, anyway, she was being urged into battle. But she decided: NO WAY IN HELL! I mean, what would you do? And that was her big mistake. The man on top of her got struck down as he tried to urge her towards one of the filthy creatures. She whinnied in fear. 'What the fuck am I supposed to do now?' she thought.
But then, she realized that the battle was over. There were no more ugly creatures. There were just men. Lots of men. She tried to bite her lip, but couldn't on account of the fact that she was a bloody horse!
A man with blonde hair (even at night you could tell how blonde he was) walked up to her. In the background the men were burning the carcasses of the creatures. And then the girl understood. How many times had she seen that movie? These creatures were goblins! And that blonde man walking towards her with his hand outstretched was Eomer! NO WAY.
"Shh, Arod, shh!" he said as he patted her head. She snorted. He led her to one of the other horses. It was brown with a white blaze. She noticed that he too, was riderless. "Take care of them," Eomer told another man, and then he left to tend to the wounded. The other man made soft clicking noises as he prodded and poked at the brown horse. He tossed his brown mane as the man finished. Then the man turned towards Arod, and she tried to back away. She couldn't, of coarse, because he was holding her reigns.
"Hush now Arod, I'm not going to hurt you!" The man said in a soft voice. NO, ya think? She figured that out already, but no way was she going to let him prod at her like he did the other horse!
"What is wrong with you?" asked a voice beside her. She turned, and looked. Nothing but the other horse. "Excuse me? Would you do me the courtesy of answering my question," it said again, in a very irritated voice. It was the horse! 'Oh great, I'm in Middle Earth, I'm a horse, and other horses are talking to me. Perhaps I'm just dreaming... I hope.'
Just then the man used her momentary lack of attention by prodding her over the legs, back, and hindquarters. The girl/horse let out a shrill cry, and he let her be after he tethered both of them to a tree. He too went to tend to the wounded.
"You can talk!" she said, but she didn't feel her horse lips move. Instead she felt her words sort of leak out of her brain through her ears. What a weird feeling! The horse nodded his head. "Are you hurt?
"No," she said.
"Then why were you so afraid of Denethor?"
"I didn't want him to touch me!"
At that he snorted. "What is your name oh - foolish - one?" he asked.
"Well, I suppose it is Arod now," She said sadly, "It used to be Melanie."
"I am Hasufel," he said proudly, "Son of Grandfen and Anale." He drew up his head, and it appeared he wanted her to be impressed. How was a horse supposed to look impressed? Well, Melanie settled for bowing her head a little. Then, on sudden inspiration, she said, "You have a proud heritage."
He snorted in a satisfied sort of way. Hasufel looked past Melanie to the sky. "The sun rises. We ride." Before she knew it she was tethered to Hasufel who was tethered to another horse. None of the other horses seemed to want to talk to them. Melanie supposed it was because they lost riders. Melanie assumed the others considered it was Hasufel and Melanie's fault the riders were dead. Then the horses started to run. Not run, gallop.
Melanie couldn't believe she could go so fast. She was really flying! She threw back her head in joy. Hasufel was laughing. This was the best. Running, running, running. Fun.
Then they all started to turn around back to where we had come. A man, tall, sweaty looking, was standing on a hill. How on earth could they have passed by him? And then Melanie noticed a short man, and a very tall VERY good looking man step out from behind the first.
They surrounded the three. Melanie could see they were not afraid at all. Then Eomer spoke. "What business does an elf, a man, and a dwarf have with the Ridermark? Speak quickly!"
"Give me your name horse master, and I shall give ye mine." said the dwarf
"I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood a little higher from the ground," Eomer said casually.
"You would die before your stroke fell," said Legolas, while notching a bow faster than I could blink. Aragorn lowered Legolas's bow and spoke.
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas, of the Woodland Realm." he said, motioning to his companions. "We are friends of Rohan. And Theoden, your king."
"Theoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," Eomer replied, taking off his helmet, "Not even his own kin." At this, all the Riders lowered the spears that they had been pointing at the three. "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the king and claimed lordship over these lands. My company is those loyal to Rohan. And for that, we have been banished," He paused and then spoke again, "The white wizard is cunning," he whispered, looking around at his companions for support, "He walks here and there, they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip past our nets." At this he looked pointedly at Legolas, the oh so hot elf. Legolas looked defiantly back at him.
"We are no spies," said Aragorn, seeing the two looking daggers at each other. "We track a party of Urak-Hi westward across the plains. They have taken two of our friends captive," he finished in a sad tone.
"The Uraks are destroyed, we slaughtered them during the night," Eomer said emotionlessly, while turning to look at Aragorn.
"Did you see two Hobbits with them?" cried Gimli frantically.
"They would be small, only children to your eyes," Aragorn put in.
"We left none alive," said Eomer, "We piled the carcasses and burned them," Melanie wondered why they did that, what was the point? Oh well. Eomer motioned towards the burning ground far behind them, littered with dead orcs.
"Dead," Gimli grunted huskily.
Eomer nodded his head, "I am sorry."
Then Eomer whistled, "Hasufel, Arod," and the two were pulled over towards them. Melanie shivered uncomfortably, as Legolas reached out and stroked her neck. "May they take you to better fortune than their masters," he said, "Farewell."
"Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It is forsaken in these lands, we ride north!" He called out to his companions and the rest of the Rohirrim rode away, leaving two horses, an elf, a man, and a dwarf standing there.
"Oh shit," Melanie said to Hasufel. He merely laughed his horse laugh.
Melanie tried to back away from Legolas, but those confounded reigns held her back. She kept thinking how it would be if suddenly, she changed back into a human WHILE HE WAS RIDING HER. Yeah, not a good thing. Plus her back was in severe pain from . . . other things.
"This horse has been mistreated," said Legolas to Aragorn. Well, he was right. She had been mistreated, but not by the Riders of Rohan. Legolas tried to get close to Melanie again, but she wouldn't let him. Then he stopped, and he spoke. Very soft, very musical words. Melanie couldn't understand the language. She could tell the words were kind and gentle. Melanie lowered her head. Then Melanie felt something she didn't expect: Legolas took her saddle off! For a moment Melanie sighed in relief at having that thing off her. Then she realized what Legolas was planning to do: ride her bareback. Oh shit. And, just as Melanie knew he would, Legolas mounted her. She was surprised. When the man from Rohan had been on her, she felt a heavy weight on her back. With Legolas on her, she hardly felt anything. That is, until Legolas helped Gimli up. Anyone could tell he was uneasy around horses, plus he weighed a ton!
Aragorn mounted Hasufel. Hasufel drew his head up. Melanie could tell he was proud that he was carrying the king of kings. And then her thoughts turned, once again, to whom she was carrying. Legolas Greenleaf. She was carrying an elf, an immortal. Melanie suddenly felt VERY protective of her burden (not so much Gimli.) Aragorn interrupted her musings, "We ride!" and he urged Hasufel into a gallop. Legolas didn't even need to rap her sides with his legs (wow, did THAT sound weird) before she started to run. Hasufel and Aragorn were ahead of them. Far ahead. Melanie did not care. She did not want her riders to be injured. She heard Legolas mutter a reprimand, and it felt as though her heart would shatter.
Melanie speeded up a bit and Hasufel and Aragorn came into view. When they came to a hault, Melanie felt her breath constrict. Being at that site once was enough. The smell of the dead and burned Orcs was unbearable!
Aragorn dismounted Hasufel and Legolas followed suit, helping Gimli down (from Mel's aching back) as well.
Melanie watched from the top of the hill, as they approached the large pile. Gimli dug through the pile with the end of his axe and then picked something up.
He looked up at Aragorn and Legolas and then said, "Its one of their wee belts." He held it up for them to see. Legolas bowed his head and began to mutter things in elvish. He was praying. Aragorn kicked a helmet and started to yell with anger. Her stomach lurched. He kneeled down on the ground and stopped to ponder for a few seconds.
"A hobbit lay here," he murmered, "They crawled. Their hands were bound."
Legolas and Gimli both looked up and followed him as he crawled across the ground, looking for clues. He picked up a piece of rope.
"Their bounds were cut," he said, a glimmer of hope in his voice.
"He's onto something," Melanie said to Hasufel.
"NO!" Hasufel replied sarcastically. She shot him a nasty, yet amused look before setting off after the trio. He followed, chuckling. They had stopped in front off Fangorn forest.
Hasufel and Melanie started to trot into the forest but Legolas stopped them. Melanie snorted with anger.
He merely shook his head. She felt more anger at this. It sucked being this stupid horse! Melanie really wanted to go with them. Why couldn't she be a human again? Why couldn't she go into the forest with them? Melanie felt her anger surge from her head, through her body and down to her hooves.
There was a small POP, and she fell painfully to the ground. She looked down at her hooves . . . but they weren't hooves! They were feet! She looked at her hands . . . her hands!
"Will you let me come now?"